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Saturday's football game between the University of Mississippi and the University of Missouri was a hurdle for Ole Miss' new alcohol and tobacco policies.

After years of official but widely flouted prohibition, Ole Miss, in response to new state legislation, has begun allowing liquor and wine on campus. In accordance with Lafayette County's local option, beer still is illegal.

With the new legal status for alcohol, campus police and security personnel were focused on "underage drinking and flagrant display of alcohol, because then the assumption is that it is being distributed," said Jeff Alford, associate vice chancellor of university relations. "What we want to limit is open bars, open containers available to anybody, public displays of alcohol."

During the game, when much of the crowd moves to the stadium, police checked coolers that were left unattended and unlocked, pouring out gallons of beer and liquor.

"If it's unattended, it's open for anybody to drink," said one police officer who identified himself as Officer Lee. "We're trying to keep it out of kids' hands."

Some applauded the new measures.

"Everybody's nice today," said James H. Robinson, of Grenada. "Used to, you'd come in here and see all kinds of drunk people." He said in the past years he's often seen children and young adults stealing alcohol from unattended tents.

Some Mizzou fans learned that beer is illegal only after boarding the game day shuttle.

"I was just trying to be hospitable," said one.

A woman from Augusta, Ga., watched police confiscating other people's beer and said, "To me, that's going into someone's private property."

"They're going to go into some prominent alumnus' cooler, and all hell's going to break loose," her husband added.

Bubba Lindseay of Somerville, Tenn., took it in stride when he returned from the game and found his party's beer and liquor poured out.

"Whatever," he said with a shrug. "As long as they left our food, we're happy."

Ole Miss freshman Brooke Barnett of Tupelo said the county-imposed beer ban didn't necessarily make sense.

"We should be able to drink beer before we can drink harder stuff."

Smoking 'em out

Smoke was less evident among tailgaters Saturday, days after Ole Miss restricted tobacco use to 30 designated spots on campus, but it wasn't absent.

"I was surprised I couldn't smoke out here," said Rob Snell of St. Louis, who had been enjoying a cigar in the Grove before he was informed it was off-limits.

Others were defiant.

"I don't give a damn," said Chris Steiner of Oxford, who puffed a stogie in the Grove. "I just smoke on special occasions, and this is a special occasion."

Score not in

Ole Miss police can't release figures on Saturday's arrests and incidents until Monday or Tuesday, and Oxford's Saturday arrest figures were not available at press time. Oxford Police Chief Mike Martin said, however, that Friday night seemed fairly quiet for a home game weekend at Ole Miss.

"Friday nights are usually heavier than Saturday nights," he said after Saturday's game. "We'll hope for a peaceful night tonight, but we're ready."

http://www.djournal.com/pages/story.asp?ID=251133&pub=1&div=News

Nebraska's lieutenant governor on Wednesday put out a plea to stop drunken driving among the state's youth before homecoming season gets started.

Lt. Gov. Rick Sheehy said underage drinking is a big problem across the entire state, and it'll take the community to change those habits. Nebraska is in the top 10 for underage drinking violations in the nation.

"This is not a good top 10 to be in," Sheehy said, speaking the law enforcement and parents. "Alcohol causes accidents, and we want people to be safe. So we want people to make good decisions this weekend."

Dianne Riibe, with the advocacy group Project Extra Mile, said parents should reinforce an anti-drinking message in their homes.

"We know there has to be solid laws and policies in place and they have to be enforced solidly," Riibe said.

Local law enforcement will have more patrols out over the homecoming weekends.

Sheehy said the state is in a new grant cycle, and now that leaders have identified how big the underage drinking problem is, they can put more money towards coalitions and groups like Project Extra Mile.

Riibe said solid laws and strong enforcement seem to be putting a dent in the problem, but there's still work to do.

http://www.ketv.com/news/14100999/detail.html?subid=10102001

The state has dumped about $140,000 worth of wine that had belonged to a man accused of vandalizing a winery near North Platte.

It had belonged to a former Feather River Vineyards employee, David Jurena.

Jurena has been charged with burglary and criminal mischief and faces trial next month.

He is accused of draining more than 300 gallons of wine from winery tanks last October.

Authorities say he ruined the wine by putting in too much sulfur dioxide, then dumped it to avoid being caught.

http://www.ktiv.com/News/index.php?ID=16502

Michael Klein

The partners of Swanky Bubbles paid $1.6 million for their liquor license as they took over the former Olive on Evesham Road in Cherry Hill. This may be an all-time U.S. record, if lawyers who watch such issues are correct.

Also significant is that Swanky Bubbles is not some deep-pocketed chain. Besides the Cherry Hill operation, the partnership has a Swanky Bubbles in Old City and Macs in Somers Point, N.J.

The license held by Brio Tuscan Grille, an Ohio-based Italian chain that opened this week at the old Garden State Park site, cost $1.5 million.

Licenses in Pennsylvania and New Jersey are sold on the open market, subject to supply and demand.

Top prices in Philadelphia are about $70,000, while the most anyone can recall paying for one in the Pennsylvania counties is $350,000.

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/food/20070830_Table_Talk____1_7_mil_for_a_liquor_license.html